The moment Kyle appeared in the game, several message windows popped up and appeared in front of her, asking if she wanted to accept various people as in-game friends.  William Fleetfoot, Johnb Jovi, Drun Kindwarf, Seran Darkbringer, and Lady Heather, were waiting for him to accept their friendship requests.   Without hesitation, she did so, and immediately several tiny little face images floated unobtrusively off to the side of her vision.

“Hey guys!  Hey!  Hi!”  An overly exuberant voice came out of thin air, and Kyle knew instantly who it had to be. “Greetings, William,” he tried to reply back, but William simply continued on.  “Guys!  Hey guys!  I hope everyone can hear me now.  I’m William, also known as William!  Shhhhhhh!  Don’t tell the guys I’m traveling with, but I’m only pretending to be an actor right now!”

An actor?  The last Kyle remembered, wasn’t he hiding as a nun somewhere? William somehow seemed to have ten adventures for each one that they’d even pretended to have!  Part of Kyle had to wonder if he was just a fruit merchant or something, and lying about all the things he was doing in game.

“Shut up, jerkface!”  An elegant, but haughty female voice commanded.

“But…”

“I said shut it!  Now shut it before I take this helmet off, go over there, and kick you in the nuts before you even know what happened!”  

“That sounds painful!  Kinda funny though!  Do you think about my nuts much?”  The two were carrying on their own private conversation when a deep baritone male voice suddenly interrupted them both.  “Shove it, maggots!  If’n I need to, I’ll come hunt ya down and shove my hammer so far down yer worthless throats you’ll be shitting out gravel!”

“And who the…” The haughty elf girl started, only to be suddenly cut off.

“SHOVE IT, I SAID!!”  The voice bellowed around, and Kyle jumped slightly, certain that it was going to alert every creature for miles around to his location, but nothing else seemed to react to it.  Apparently friend chats were something only heard by your friends.  That was kind of a relief!

“Now then, maggots!”  The voice continued on as if it demanded to be listed to, and William and the still unidentified elf girl both held their peace, miraculously.  “For those of ya who don’t know, all you have to do is tap those floaty little pictures, and then you can speak and the person ya tapped on can hear you.”

“Like this?”  A new, very thick and rough sounding male voice asked.

“Yep. That’s it.”

Kyle gently reached out and tapped all five images.  A small glowing box twirled around each to show they’d been selected and active.  “Hear  me too, guys?”  She asked in her light, very feminine voice.

“Yep.  That’s it, maggots!” The deep baritone voice confirmed.  “Now then, let’s introduce each other, so we’ll know who’s who by our game names and voices.  I’m Drun Kindwarf, and I’m the best damnable smith ya ever laid your ears on!  Sometimes when I dream, I’m know as Jason there.  Got that, maggots?!”

Jason?!  Talking and being so forceful?  Kyle couldn’t hardly believe it!  He was always so quiet and kind of backwards in the real world, and he had a terrible time talking to women.  He not only talked to one here, but he also told them to shove it and called them a maggot!  Kyle thought the change was amazing, but then again, who was he to talk?  After all, he was a she in game!

“Seran Darkbringer,” answered the rough sounding male voice.  “In me dreams, me ravage all the womens!  Me is Kyle there!  Hear me HIIIISSSSSSS!!”

What the hell?!  Someone was claiming to be him?  Who the hell was it?  Darryl?

The next voice to speak up was the snobbish sounding elf girl.  “Lady Heather here, and if you don’t know who I am out of this world, you jerkfaces can all just die!”

“Me Johnb Jovi.  Me not Darryl.  Him not real!”  A booming old voice, with a feeling of granite in it, finally spoke up for the first time.

William, Darryl, Jason, Heather had all identified themselves as themselves.  That meant that Seran was actually Sera?  Why the heck would she claim to be him?  Kyle debated for a brief moment if he should say something and spoil her ruse, but then decided to just go with the flow.  She’d started it, he’d simply wait for her to get bored, or get caught and then stop it.

Clearing her cute little elven voice, Kyle finally spoke up.  “And I’m Sera.  I haven’t chosen a name in game yet, so you guys can all call me Sera if you want.”

“Sera no good!  Me Seran!  That sound too much like me name.  We call you Kylie!”

“What a douche!  Taking your name and then trying to make you take his.  I told you he was a pervert, Sera!”  Heather told her.  “If you want to just talk to me, think of my name or picture and the others will deselect.  No need to touch them like that moron said.  The game reads our brainwaves after all.”

Concentrating, Kyle watched the glow around the different icons fade away as he concentrated on Heather’s name.  “Thanks for letting me know,” Kyle told her.

“No problems, sweetie.  You can ask me anything, in game or out, anytime.  You know that right?”

“I sure do,” Kyle lied.

“Then Sera no Sera!  Sera be Kylie!”  Darryl suddenly declared.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Hiyas Kylie!”  William confirmed, in a support for his two friends.

“A beer toasted to ya, Kylie!”  Jason agreed.

“Now wait a moment!”  Heather exclaimed, but Kyle cut her off.  “It’s OK Heather.  Since I haven’t chose a name yet, I’ll be known as Kylie from now on.”

“Are you sure you want to put up with that?” Heather asked

“Yeah, it’s fine.  I’m Kylie.”  

“Fine.  Whatever.”  Heather finally dropped the issue and then a dinging sound rang out as a window popped up near Kyle.

Congratulations!  You have completed a traditional elven naming ceremony!

**  One with the blood of a royal or elder, has announced your name to a diverse group of peoples.

**  One of pure elven blood has accepted and witnessed the name.

**  At least three others have witnessed and accepted the name.

**  The ceremony was started and completed on the same moonday.

You gain 500 xp!  

You have advanced a level!

You gain 2 HP!

You gain 20 MP!

You gain 5 CP!

You now need 1940 experience to level 2!

Your name shall now be Kylie el X’entia!

Holy shit!  He’d actually just completed his elven naming ceremony!  Kyle couldn’t help but laugh lightly.  Seems like he really was going to be called Kylie from now on!

“Me want group,” Seran declared, unaware of what had just transpired with Kylie getting her name and gaining a level.

“You can’t jerkface,” Heather told him coldly.  “You can only invite people who are close to you to join your group, and I’m not anywhere near you at all, thank goodness!”  Kyle couldn’t help but smirk and wonder what Heather would do, if she realized that was Sera she was actually treating that way.  Pretending to be her might be rather amusing in its own way.

“Think ‘map’, ya maggots!”  Jason spoke up offering the next set of advice for them all in game.  “Since we’re friends now, you can see green arrows at the edge of your map.  They should have names above them, and those will tell you how far and which direction everyone is in.  None of you maggots near me here, in the Dwarven Kingdom!”

“Hey!  Heather, I’m not far from you,” William explained suddenly.  “Give me a moment, and I’ll be heading your way! Just give me a moment to borrow this chaps horse.  He’s one of those elven messengers, inside the wagon talking to the producer.  I’m certain he won’t mind me using it to catch up to a friend in game!  Hiho Silver!”

“You really don’t have to,” Heather started to tell him, but William just laughed and rambled on excitedly.  “Guys!  Guys!  It really is a Silver horse!  I’m riding a silver horse!  Yahooooooo!!”

“O, puhleeze!”  Heather complained privately to Kylie.  “Does he really take us for idiots?  I’ve seen the silver horses in the city here.  They’re what the royal messengers’ use.  He could’ve at least made it a believable lie!”  Kylie couldn’t help but smirk and shake her head.  This whole “I’m Sera” act was really amusing him to death!

Trying to tune out William’s incessant rambling as he was describing the trees and road flying by at rapid speed, Kylie finally pulled up her own map.  Very little was uncovered on it; apparently she was in unexplored lands.  All the arrows on her map were at the very edge, and the numbers under them was very large.  She wasn’t anywhere near anybody!

“I’m all alone in the forest, it seems,” She complained somewhat.  In some ways it was a pain to be out in the middle of nowhere without anyone being around, but in other ways, it was still a relief.  After all, Kylie only had her cloak to wear at the moment, and having everyone see her naked would be embarrassing as heck – even if it was just as a character in a game!

“Don’t worry sweetie, I’m always just a whisper away,” Heather told her privately.

“Little Seran dot near Johnb!  Johnb go step on Seran dot!”

“Johnb braindead if him fight Seran!  Seran smash like rock upside head!  HIIISSSS!!  HIIISSSSSS!!!

“Me coming!  Crush Seran!!”

“HISSSSSSS!!   Seran man!  Seran bash!!”

Kylie just shook her head from side to side before sitting down and starting to work on earning the crafting skill.  She’d logged out in a spot which seemed safe from ambush, and from what she could tell there wasn’t any of those noxious vines near her at the moment.  Since no one was nearby, all she could do is keep working on her talents the same as always – one failed attempt at a time!

The only thing different from before was the fact that she now at least had people to talk to, to help pass the time as she worked on trying to learn how to make leaf armor.  It was kind of funny, and kind of annoying both, that it was Heather who spent the most time sending her private messages in game!

Taking time to take a bite out of her fruitcake, and a swig from her waterskin to wash it down, Kylie setting in for a long weekend of crafting, killing vines, and working on raising her talent in Heather Resilience!